Toby Harnden reminds us that the only man to have debated both Obama and McCain is Mr Loony Tunes himself, Alan Keyes. So what does he think? So what does he think of their debating skills? “Both of them, I confess, I found not very impressive as people in debates,” he told me. “If by
So, how’s the financial rescue plan coming along? Are you inspired with confidence? Not so much… In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy. “It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just
So, yeah, keeping Sarah Palin away from the press isn’t too stupid a strategy. The second half of her interview with Katie Couric airs tonight. Alas, it’s on foreign policy and it’s not, I think, likely to be pretty. Here, for instance, is Palin talking about Afghanistan: Katie Couric: Why is it much more challenging
Whatever one might say about Sarah Palin, this photograph is disturbing on many, many levels… And, for the people who pay attention to these things, it’s a blunder too. Because, you know, seeing Sarah Palin perched on a sofa chattering away with Henry Kissinger emphasises rather than reduces the validity of concerns about her experience
Jackie Ashley argues that Gordon Brown deserves the extra time she thinks he bought with his speech yesterday, even though she concedes it won’t be nearly enough to save him in the long run. But I was also struck by this: His wife Sarah’s appearance was touching and starry: she is truly his greatest asset.
There are very good reasons for wanting to be rid of this shower sooner rather than later: Identity cards could be handed out to children as young as 14, a home office minister has suggested. The first ID cards are due to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds from 2010 as part of a plan
Verily, Arkansas is a land visited by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. At least it was according to this Goerge HW Bush ad from 1992:
Classy stuff from Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour Party, today. On David Cameron: There is something not quite right about him. He’s the kind of man your mother used to warn you about. You know the kind of man I’m talking about. He’ll promise you the world. Promise to make all your dreams
Ross Douthat has a fine post – from a Red Sox perspective, no less – on the decline and fall of the New York Yankees. For the first time in what seems like a generation the Pinstripers won’t be playing in the post-season. Buster Olney explains why in terms of trades and drafts here. Messrs
This Michael Dukakis ad from 1988 isn’t exactly subtle or elegant. But it has a certain resonance this week. Of course, that wasn’t enough for Dukakis…
John McCain wants to suspend campaigning until Congress has sorted out how to bailout Wall Street. What does this mean? Simple: he’s losing and he knows he is.
With ads like these, how did Adlai Stevenson lose to Eisenhower in 1952? Marvellous stuff.
The last ever episode of The Wire was (finally) broadcast in Britain last night. Not, to their shame, on the BBC or Channel 4 but on the obscure, little-watched (hell, little-known) FX channel. A quiet end then. Coincidentally, the end came as, for the fifth time, the clowns who divvy up the Emmys failed to
I remain perplexed. People are still talking about David Milliband as Gordon Brown’s successor. I just don’t see it. Miliband’s the sort of kid who was always picked last in a game of playground football. Even if he’s better than some of the other kids, you still wouldn’t want him on your side. He’s that
I guess this isn’t too much of a surprise. But here’s Rush Limbaugh talking about Barack Obama’s ancestors, yesterday: LIMBAUGH: These polls on how one-third of blue-collar white Democrats won’t vote for Obama because he’s black, and — but he’s not black. Do you know he has not one shred of African-American blood? He doesn’t
I don’t nornally write about Euroloonies, partly because I have trouble taking the European Parliament any more seriously than I do the Liberal Democrats. That is to say, it – and they – cross my mind no more than twice a year. But this, via the indomitable Trixy, is sufficiently priceless as to merit attention:
So, Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour party conferene wasn’t terrible. By which I mean that it clearly pleased his audience. And his “This is no time for a novice” line was an entertaining slap aimed at both David Cameron and David Miliband. But that carries danger too: Brown is trying to make the case
Courtesy of Sarah Schmelling at McSweeney’s: Horatio thinks he saw a ghost. Hamlet thinks it’s annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies. The king thinks Hamlet’s annoying. Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better. Hamlet’s father is now a zombie. – – – – The king poked the queen. The queen
From the Telegraph’s obituary of John Burrows, an intelligence officer who spent part of the war working at Bletchley Park: In August 1939 he married Enid Carter, an employee of the British Sugar Corporation, and a few weeks later, on the outbreak of war, he volunteered for the Intelligence Corps. “When I joined the Army,
How much experience does a candidate need to have? What qualifies as experience anyway? According to this JFK ad, Nixon’s years as Vice-President didn’t count as qualifying experience…